Easton, of Rushyford Avenue, Roseworth, Stockton, said he drank and took cocaine, the woman engaged him in conversation and invited him into town.

He said she invited him to her bedroom in the early hours of August 26 last year, but they did not have sex as he was tired and fell asleep in her bed.

He told the court: “The next thing I recall happening, I woke up slumped in the back of a police van at Hartlepool police station. They read me my rights and I was under arrest for rape.”

Easton, who said he was well known in Stockton, said: “I always remember every person I’ve slept with, always. I don’t know why she’s made this up.”

He later said under cross-examination by prosecutor Christopher Attwooll: “She’s not been happy that I fell asleep on her.

“I would know if I’d had sex with her. I haven’t had sex with her. I’m not denying the fact I went there to have sex with her.”

He denied struggling, trying to bite a police officer and being punched, cuffed and put into leg restraints.

He said officers made this up, telling jurors: “I’ve never resisted arrest.”

His ex-partner gave evidence saying he never treated her improperly.

Easton was jailed for seven years in 2007 after admitting four charges of causing death by dangerous driving. The delivery driver’s van clipped a Citroen Saxo on the A1, forcing it off the road into trees near Kirkby Fleetham in North Yorkshire in 2007.

Paula Gilbert, 29, Neil Jex, 37, and two of their sons, Tristan, three, and seven-month-old Kaiden from Hebburn, South Tyneside, were all in the Saxo and died at the scene.

Easton had been drinking the previous evening and had very little sleep after an all-night party. He served half of his sentence before release on licence.

Now dad to a baby daughter, the off-shore rigger said he “struggled” in prison and had no desire to go back. He said he had post-traumatic stress disorder and still had counselling over the crash.

Following his arrest in this case, he was recalled to prison for three months.

Brian Russell, defending in the rape trial, said the Crown had “fallen a long way short” of proving its case.

He said Easton told the truth and what he genuinely believed. If Easton really was guilty, Mr Russell argued, it would have been easier to say they had consensual sex, which was very difficult to disprove.